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The First World War In Colour [2003] [DVD]
 
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The First World War In Colour [2003] [DVD]


3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £24.99
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Frequently Bought Together

The First World War In Colour [2003] [DVD] + The World At War - Complete TV Series (11 Disc Box Set) [DVD] + The Nazis - A Warning From History [DVD] [1997]
Total RRP: £144.97
Price For All Three: £66.94

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The First World War In Colour [2003] [DVD]
72% buy the item featured on this page:
The First World War In Colour [2003] [DVD] 3.2 out of 5 stars (8)
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Product details

  • Format: PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: All Regions
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: Exempt
  • Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 1 Sep 2003
  • Run Time: 372 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0000BXBX8
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 12,847 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in this category:

    #82 in  DVD > Documentary > Military & War

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
World War I in Colour is a Channel 5 documentary (6 x 50-minute episodes) made with the cooperation of the Imperial War Museum, designed to make the Great War come alive for a 21st-century audience. The events of 1914-18 are authoritatively narrated by Kenneth Branagh, who presents the military and political overview, while interviews with historians add different perspectives. The human cost is conveyed by moving interviews with the now very elderly survivors, and by extracts from letters and memoirs. All aspects of the war, on land, sea and air are covered in separate programmes. In theory the series continues the heritage of ITV's The Second World War in Colour (1999) and Britain at War in Colour (2000), and with 75 per cent of the material never shown on television before there is every reason to watch.

The crucial difference between this and the WWII programmes is that the Great War wasn't filmed in colour, and the footage has been computer colourised. The programme-makers argue the conflict itself was in colour--but however realistic the digital processing, it still feels inauthentic and historically a distortion. Worse still is their destroying the original compositions by cropping the top and bottom of the material to fit widescreen TVs. The result is a potentially excellent series badly presented, best watched with the colour turned off. Even then it cannot compete with the BBC's 26-part The Great War (1964), still one of the finest documentaries ever made.

On the DVD: World War I in Colour is presented on two discs with three episodes on each disc. The modern interview clips look and sound immaculate, while the historical footage varies from very poor to quite good. Even so, the picture resolution is not helped by discarding a third of the original images and stretching what remains to widescreen. The budget spent on colourisation would have been better used to restore the often very scratchy black-and-white film, and to pay for an orchestra to rerecord the score, which is realised with a clichéd palette of preset electronic samples.

Both DVDs reproduce the same general background facts, timeline and 20 biographies as static text screens. Disc One has a 15-minute behind-the-scenes feature in which producer Philip Nugus and director Jonathan Martin justify the colourisation. Disc Two offers Tactics & Strategy, which at 52 minutes amounts to a whole seventh programme, mixing archive footage with new computer graphics to illustrate in detail 13 specific aspects of the conflict. Presented in 4:3 ratio this is the most creative, original and rewarding part of the entire package. --Gary S Dalkin

Synopsis
This disc features over six hours of rare footage from World War 1 which has been painstakingly colourised by over 400 technicians over a period of five months. The resulting documentary attempts to give new relevance to the reality and the horror of the Great War. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
58 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing, 22 Oct 2003
The formula of using a famous actor to do a war documentary is a well tried one. Michael Redgrave and Judy Dench have done it very well for the First World War. Laurence Olivier did it superbly for the Second. Unfortunately Brannagh is a very pale imitation of any of these. Worse still is the commentary he is asked to read. This is a very shallow script. The idea of colorising the film is little more than a gimmick. The film editors have also committed the monumental error of reusing the same bits of film in different contexts thereby showing their very limited concern for historical reality. If you are interested in the First World War save your money and buy 'The Great War', '1914-1918 Total War/The Crucible' or even Richard Holmes' 'The Western Front'.
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54 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Gimmicks triumph over content, 25 Sep 2003
By Mr. R. Tarr "activehistory.co.uk" (Toulouse, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
As a history teacher, I eagerly awaited the launch of this series, but was chronically disappointed. Much of the footage is repeated between the episodes - it is clear that the team coloured in a battle scene, a "bored in the trenches" scene, a "flag waving" scene and all the rest of it - so that they could cut and paste it around the bland narrative. The gravitas with which Branagh speaks is laughable given the brain-dead script. I can't even use this with my 13 year olds. The only enlightening detail is that poison gas apparently turned everyone and everything fluorescent and psychedelic. Dire.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Colour brings the war to life, 23 Aug 2004
By DF McCleland (Johannesburg, South Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
By colourizing the film, the producers have brought WW1 to life. Being a child of the age of colour, I have always found black & white uninviting & unexciting. I believe that this series will set a trend just like the Britain at War in Colour has done.
However it was not only the colourizing that made the series, but the editorial policy of the series itself. It has a balance between personal interviews, diary extracts, opinions of experts & the commentary by the Narrator thereby keeping interest in the viewing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great chance to see some of the rarer WW1 pictures
A great insight in to WW1 and works well at reminding us of the horrors of war, especially WW1. Many in here are long dead and it's important we remember. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Brother Sun Sister Moon.

3.0 out of 5 stars Satisfactory
The First World War in Colour accomplishes all it says on the box, covering the Land Sea and Air War with no particular bells or whistles. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr Chairman

1.0 out of 5 stars Simply terrible!
"If any one tells you that they weren't scared to go `over the top' then they're a liar!" That is the only line in this travesty of a TV show that you need to know and the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by S. Cobb

5.0 out of 5 stars A great series...
An excellent and valuable resource on the subject of World War one including veteran's views and experiences that I found most moving. Read more
Published on 23 April 2005 by David

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good history.
The colour is first rate and the historical accuracy is even better. Some of the best historians of the Great War have contributed to this feature, Gary Sheffield and Norman Stone... Read more
Published on 25 May 2004

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